“During his time as chief executive Patrick has made a significant contribution to the development of the organisation and to the principles-based approach to regulation which was adopted by all of the stakeholders in Ireland.

“The system is, of course, now under review in the light of the global financial crisis, which has posed such major issues for regulators worldwide...The authority wishes Mr Neary well for the future.”

Mr Neary was well rewarded for his contribution. He received a €630,000 pay-off and an annual pension of €143,000. Little is known how exactly this generous pay-off was arrived at but it must have required very senior State approval.

Within weeks of Mr Neary’s resignation, news that Anglo Irish Bank had loaned money to fund the purchase of its own shares by both the Quinn family and 10 long-standing clients of the bank would break.

At once the State announced it was firmly on the case.

A spokesman for the Department of Finance said in the week the Quinn/Anglo story broke: “Various matters are being considered by the financial regulator, the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement [ODCE]...any significant corporate governance issue that comes to light will be investigated by the appropriate authorities”.

Soon gardaí would also be involved after the regulator itself made a complaint that it believed something deserving of investigation had occurred between Anglo and the Quinns.

The State assured the public it would get to the bottom of what seemed a huge financial scandal.

Six years later, hundreds of interviews, the analysis of one million documents, thousands of investigation hours and the occasional arrest finally led to 48 days of evidence, 50-odd witnesses, days of legal argument and a jury’s deliberations before it was finally over.

Judge Martin Nolan boiled the entire Quinn-Anglo affair back to where it all started: the office of the financial regulator on Dame Street.

“It would be most unjust to jail these two men when I feel that a State agency [the financial regulator] had led the two men into error and illegality,” he said.

Judge Nolan praised gardaí for carrying out a “difficult and unusual investigation” but his comments on the regulator who started the whole investigation were extraordinary.

“I find it incredible that red lights didn’t go off someplace in the regulator’s office and the appropriate legal advice was not sought.

“It seems to be by not taking action and not warning the bank, they (financial regulators office) gave a green light to lending for the purposes of buying shares.”

During his evidence in the Anglo trial Mr Neary’s cut a figure far removed from the man portrayed in such respectful terms at the time of his retirement.